In Russian everything six independent cases, and nouns, adjectives, numerals and pronouns are declined (changed by case). But schoolchildren often have difficulty determining case. Students cannot always correctly put a question to a word, and this leads to mistakes. Particular difficulties arise when a word has the same form in different cases.

There are several techniques that will help you accurately determine the case of a word.

1. Statement of the question.

Please note that the question must be case, and not semantic. For questions where? Where? When? Why? case cannot be determined.

Both candidates(who? – R. p.).

What happened in 1812?(in what? – P. p.).

After the concert five(I. p.) spectators(whom? – R. p.) stayed in the hall(in what? – P. p.).

In ten minutes(through what? – V. p.) he (I. p.) returned.

She is happy with the new car(how? – etc.).

2. Exist auxiliary words, which can help in determining case:

To distinguish homonymous case forms, the following techniques are used.

3. Replacing the singular with the plural.

To go on the road(ending -e in both D. p. and P. p.).

Walk on the roads(Why? – D. p., in P. p. – about roads).

4. Replacing the masculine gender with the feminine gender.

Met a friend(the ending -a in both R. p. and V. p.).

Met a friend(whom? – V. p., in R. p. – girlfriends).

5. Magic word Mother.

Particular difficulties arise when distinguishing the forms of accusative and genitive, accusative and nominative cases. As always, he will come to the rescue "Mother". This is the word that can be substituted into a sentence. Framed, look at the ending: mom A – nominative, mom Y – Genitive; mom U – accusative.

Perish yourself, and comrade(ending -a in both R. p. and V. p.) help out.

Die yourself, and mom(V.p.) help out.

6. Knowledge of characteristic prepositions also helps to determine case.

As you can see, there are prepositions characteristic of only one case: without– for genitive case (no hitch); by, to – for dative case (through the forest, towards the house), oh, oh, at – for prepositional case (about three heads, in front of you).

Let us remember that the case of the adjective is determined by the case of the word being defined. In order to determine the case of an adjective, it is necessary to find in the sentence the noun to which it refers, because the adjective is always in the same case as the word being defined.

I'm happy with the new coat. Adjective new refers to a noun coat in T. p., therefore, new – etc.

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The Russian language is a synthetic language: in them, word change occurs through the addition or change of inflections - in other words, endings - which convey several meanings. Distinctive feature Such a paradigm is a combination of several meanings within one morpheme.

In analytical languages ​​(for example, Romance: Spanish, French), word order and prepositions fulfill the same purpose, for which cases of nouns and adjectives are needed in Russian, that is, they establish grammatical meaning word form and its syntactic connection with other members of the sentence.

The concept of declension: declension in Russian

The inflectional nature of the Russian language is manifested in the fact that nominal parts of speech are attached to endings that convey the categories of the year, number and case. This process is called declination. In the Russian language, according to the traditional classification, the noun has three declensions, although there are other approaches. For example, Andrei Anatolyevich Zaliznyak proposes to define the “school” paradigms of the first and second declension as variations of a common substantive type.

The diversity of concepts is not limited to this area. From school textbooks it is known that nouns and adjectives Russian languages ​​change according to six cases, but linguistics disputes this statement. This is because in some cases the noun takes an ending that is not part of the traditional declension paradigm (for example, drink some tea Yu , instead of drink some tea I ; don't know the truth s instead of don't know the truth at ). Fortunately, it is not at all necessary to know these additional cases, examples of which are given.

However, most people are far from scientific research and debate and still operate only six cases, remembering them using mnemonic rules. Unfortunately, to remember case endings they don’t exist and you have to learn them by heart. But even the most literate people sometimes fall into a stupor, wondering what ending will be correct in this case. If you have any difficulties, it is best to contact table:

As can be seen from the table, in many cases the forms of the noun in the accusative and nominative cases are the same. This is due to their grammatical and syntactic meaning: a noun in the nominative case denotes the subject of the action and is the subject of the sentence, while the accusative introduces the object of the action and is an object.

In ancient Greece, grammarians, under the strong influence of natural philosophy, assumed that the nominative is a kind of perfection, "correct" form of the word, and all the rest are a deviation from the ideal. Actually, the very term “declension” conveys the logic of ancient scientists. The opposition they created still exists today, although for different reasons. So, cases are divided into:

• direct (nominative) - do not depend on other members of the sentence and are not controlled by verbs;
• indirect (all others) - introduced by prepositions and act as an addition.

Meanings of oblique cases

Cases of the Russian language have specific functions in the formation of connections between members of a sentence. For example, the genitive conveys the meaning of belonging and inclusion in something ( son's notebook, wooden house), and the dative introduces the addressee of speech or process ( call mom, tell a friend). The modern instrumental case includes several meanings at once, among which we can distinguish the instrument of action ( hammer) and path trajectory ( walk along a forest path). The prepositional case, as the name suggests, conveys a variety of different meanings, from which, as an example, we can select a location in space ( room in the house).

Isolation of these meanings and the ability to determine them is the basis for compliance with spelling standards. Errors in case endings are quite common. To avoid them, it is necessary to at least correctly determine the case.

Determining the case of a noun

Simple table endings are not enough for the correct spelling of a word. As a rule, the problem is determining the required case. As an example of such a difficulty, one can name the orthoepically similar forms of the genitive and dative cases of the 1st declension singular ( grandmothers – grandmother). However, there is a simple way to determine the ending required in a particular case. To do this you need:

The operations described above are very simple and effective. But there are other tools that do not require memorizing case questions and types of declensions. With the development of high technologies and Internet communications, it has become possible to compile special programs and services that are able to decline the required noun online in a split second. This method Suitable for both schoolchildren and adults.

Most people have already forgotten what they went through at school, and today they have difficulty remembering what cases are called and what they are intended for. However, sometimes the question arises about which case is called what, and why it was given exactly that name. Such a thought can settle very deeply, becoming obsessive, and not disappear until you remember why any of the cases got its name. And today we'll figure it out this issue.

What are cases

To begin with, if you have forgotten, we will remind you what cases are in general, and for what purpose they are present in our speech and grammar.

Cases are a category of parts of speech that allows you to give words a semantic or syntactic role. It is through cases that we understand what a particular phrase can mean in a specific context, inflecting parts of speech according to existing cases.

There are six cases that, despite the years that have passed since leaving school, most people probably still remember to this day. This:

• Nominative;
• Genitive;
• Dative;
• Accusative;
• Instrumental;
• Prepositional.

Why are cases called that?

Below we propose to briefly pay attention to all existing cases and answer the question of why they received their names.

In order to remember which case certain words belong to, it is important to remember the basic questions to which they answer. For example, in order to answer the question why the prepositional case is called that way, it is necessary to understand that words inclined to this case answer the questions “About whom?”, “About what?” etc. That is, for example, “about parents”, “about computers”, etc. This case got its name due to the fact that words inclined to it can be substituted for the phrase “Sentence”. That is, for example: “Sentence about parents,” because sentences can be about someone or something.

Names were assigned to other cases in the Russian language in a similar way. And the sequence can be tracked very easily. For example, words inclined to the accusative case, which comes from the word “Blame,” answer the questions “Whom?” and “What?”, because you can blame either someone or something.

Questions are formed in a similar way when declension in other cases not discussed above:

• Nominative: "Who?" So what?";
• Genitive: “Who?” "What?";
• Dative: “To whom?” and “To what?”;
• Creative: “By whom?” and “What?”

Oh, this declension... When studying a noun, it is this topic that makes you really rack your brain in order to remember all the unstressed endings in all kinds of cases and numbers. How to determine the declension of nouns? The table and examples will make the task easier! Let's try to figure it out and become a little more competent!

What is declination?

Declension of a noun (a table of examples is given in the text) is a change in the case of a word and its number. Let's look at the examples in the table.

The table of declension of nouns by case shows that all nouns are divided into groups depending on what endings they acquire in the form of one case or another. Accordingly, all words related to the same phrase will have the same set of endings. Knowing how to determine the declension, you can avoid mistakes in writing the endings of nouns in a weak position, in other words, not under stress.

How many declensions can a noun have?

The table of declension of nouns by case, given in the previous section, showed that any words of the same declension in the form of the same case will have the same endings. It presents the three most common types of declension of our language. But, as you know, he is very rich, and simple rules does not exist in it. In addition to the three presented, there are other types of declinations.

So, what types of declinations are there? The most common are the first, second and third declension.

A separate group consists of words that end in -ies: intent, crime, agreement, etc.

The next group are words ending with -and I: mania, Natalia, waist, session, commission, etc.

There is a small group of words ending in -me, which are also inflected in a certain way: time, tribe, etc. Such words are called differently inflected nouns (a separate paragraph of the article will be devoted to them). Words such as path and child are also considered indeclinable.

And finally, there are also words that cannot change either by case or number, and “look” the same in all forms. These are indeclinable, or unchangeable, nouns: kangaroo, kiwi and others.

Why do you need to be able to determine declination?

The table will tell us how to determine the declension of a noun a little later. But very often the question arises: why do this? Why remember all these cases, endings, many “special” words that need to be remembered? But here's why. Let's take the word "path" as an example: I'm walking along the path, or I'm walking along the path? What should I do? Which letter should I choose? And here's another word: "winter". It is also feminine with the ending -a-. We put in the same case: (to whom? to what?) - WINTER. But we already know that all words of the same declension acquire the same ending when changed. So you need to write like this: I'm walking along(to whom; to what) pathE. The issue is resolved!

How to determine the declension of a noun? The table and examples in the following paragraphs will help you not to make mistakes in this rather simple question!

Nouns of 1st declension

These are feminine and masculine words that have endings in the initial form -A or -I(remember that the initial form for a noun is nominative and singular).

There are a lot of feminine words with such endings in the Russian language: mom, Masha, pajamas, apartment, work, daughter and many, many others. There are fewer masculine words, but they exist and are very common: dad, grandfather, Vasya, Petya and other male names.

The table of nouns of the 1st declension will compare words with stressed and unstressed endings to show that all words of a given declension will have similar case endings.

Nouns 2nd declension

These are masculine words that have (it is not expressed by a letter in the nominative case, but “appears” in other forms) and neuter gender with the endings -o, -e: raft, horse, lake, sea, field, etc. The table of nouns of the 2nd declension will show which endings the words acquire when changing by case.

As you can see, in the accusative case they have different endings. And only prepositional case forms with an unstressed ending can cause difficulties, so you should remember that in this form you need to write - e.

Nouns of the 3rd declension

These are feminine words with a zero ending. They all end in a soft sign: mouse, brooch, region, passion, and so on. Let's see what endings these words take in different forms.

It is very easy to remember: in the forms of the genitive, dative and prepositional cases, such words acquire the ending - And.

Nouns starting with -и, -я

The word “aspiration” is neuter, but it cannot be attributed to the 2nd declension; the word "mantle" is feminine, but does not change like words of the 1st declension. The table of declension of nouns by case will show the difference in endings.

As can be seen from the table, the words in -ies differ from words of the 2nd declension only in the prepositional case, and words in -and I from words of the 1st declension - in the dative and prepositional.

Remember that words ending in -ya, in all forms behave like words of the 1st declension. Therefore, for example, the forms of the same name Natalia and Natalia will be inclined differently: (give) Natalia, Natalia, (talk) about Natalia, about Natalia.

Table of declension endings for nouns

Let us summarize what has been said with a table of case endings of words belonging to different declensions.

Let's hope that no one will have any difficulty choosing the desired ending and determining the declension of nouns in the Russian language. The table explained everything in great detail.

It should be noted that -ies And -and I cannot be isolated as a separate morpheme, ending. In this case, these are simply the letters with which the word ends. such words are the topic of another article.

Declension of nouns into plural(the table here is, in general, unnecessary) very rarely causes difficulties, since the letters are mostly clearly audible. In the dative, instrumental and prepositional cases in the plural, all three declensions will have the same endings. We suggest that you decline any words in the plural yourself and make sure of this.

Indeclinable nouns

There are few indeclinable words among the nouns of the Russian language. Why are they divergent? Because they cannot be attributed to any one declension; in different cases they “behave” differently. These are words ending with -me(there are about ten of them), the words “path” and “child”. Let's look at the features of the declension of nouns in the Russian language (table) - those words that are considered differently indeclinable.

As you can see, the word “child” is inclined in a very special way. The word "path" in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases "behaves" like a word of the 3rd declension, and in the instrumental - like a word of the 2nd declension. Well, words ending with -me, in indirect cases they acquire the suffix -en-.

You need to remember these words so as not to make a mistake in choosing the right ending.

Unbending words

These are mostly borrowed words - coming from other languages. They can indicate the names of animals, plants, dishes, as well as first or last names of people, names of objects. Having entered our language, such words retained the peculiarity of not changing their form when entering a sentence. No matter what case or number such a word should be placed in, it will sound the same.

• Pour me some coffee - I admire morning coffee - we're talking about coffee.
• This is my cockatoo - I don’t have a cockatoo - give food to the cockatoo - remember the cockatoo.
• Dumas's novel - dedicated to Dumas - writes about Dumas.

It is incorrect and ignorant to inflect such words in a sentence. Everyone knows the joke phrase “I’m sitting in the first row of a movie theater with a popiroska in my tooth.” Let's not be like the hero of this joke! Declinable words must be used correctly, but indeclinable words do not need to be changed at all.

Let's sum it up

Determining the declension of nouns (table above) is not a complicated process at all, which will help you avoid mistakes when writing. Let's try to summarize all of the above.

There are three main declensions in the Russian language, but there are also special words ending in -and I And - Yep, and a few different words. Words are divided into three main groups depending on gender and ending in the nominative case.

All words of the same declension have similar endings. They can be learned so as not to make mistakes. Or you can do it differently: instead of a word with an unstressed ending, substitute any word of the same declension, but in which the stress falls on the ending. The letter at the end of these words will be the same!

Words on -and I And -ies are not included in the three main groups, because they change according to cases and numbers in a special way, and they need to be remembered.

You should also remember a small group of differently inflected words. Their set of endings does not coincide with any of the above declensions, which is why they require special attention.

And finally, inflexible words: they do not change, no matter in what context they are used. Decline words such as in a sentence cinema, coat, coffee, purse, kangaroo,- a sign of low literacy and general culture.

We hope that the article was useful and helped to understand such a difficult topic as noun declension. The table and examples were clear, and therefore choosing the correct ending will now not be difficult.

Be literate!

Changes in words in Russian by case called declination. Case-- this is a certain form of this word. There are six cases in the Russian language.

Nominative singular is the initial form of a noun, adjective, pronoun, numeral or verbal form - participle. For nouns in the nominative case we will ask questions Who? or What?: boy, tree. The nominative case usually belongs to subject in a sentence.

Genitive answers the questions whom? or what?, no boy, no tree.

Dative answers the questions to whom? or what? I'll give it to the boy, I'll give it to the tree.

Accusative answers the questions whom? ** or ** what? I see a boy, a tree.

IN instrumental case nouns we will ask questions by whom? or how?, admiring the boy, the tree.

IN prepositional case valid questions to a noun about whom? or about what?, I think about the boy, about the tree.

Case, in Russian, is a category of grammar that interacts nouns with other words in a text or sentence. Cases directly depend on the inflected noun to one degree or another, and, as a rule, the endings of these words change. There are six cases in total in the Russian language, namely:

1) nominative (answers the questions: who? or what?)

2) genitive (answers the questions: whom? or what?)

3) dative (answers questions to whom? or what?)

4) accusative (answers the questions: who? or what?)

5) instrumental (answers the questions: by whom? or with what?)

6) prepositional (answers the questions: about whom? or about what?)

In Russian, case is a grammatical category that is used to express the attitude towards an object denoted by a noun. There are 6 cases in modern Russian. Here is a table where you can see all the cases, as well as their endings for various genders in the singular and plural.

Case is a grammatical category characteristic of nouns and adjectives. Words can change by case and this change is called declension. That is, nouns (and adjectives) are declined according to cases. This declension depends on other words that stand next to the given word and determine its case.

There are a total of 6 cases in the Russian language:

Nominative - who?/what? - friend, bag

Genitive - who?/what? - friend, bags

Dative - to whom?/what? - friend, bag

Accusative - who?/what? - friend, bag

Creative - by whom?/what? - friend, bag

Prepositional - about whom?/about what? - about a friend, about a bag

Case in the Russian language is a separate grammatical category through which one expresses one’s attitude towards an object. In general, there are cases determined based on the questions asked, but here is the table:



Pay attention to auxiliary words that help determine case.

Presented below will allow you to study and remember this well. important topic in Russian as a case.

Case is the form of a word, when the word changes according to cases - inflected.

But not all parts of speech can have a case and are declined according to cases.

For example, we can decline nouns, adjectives, pronouns, but we do not decline verbs by case.

There are only six cases in the Russian language, each case has its own questions for animate and inanimate objects, and also has different endings for the singular and plural.

Table of cases of the Russian language with questions and examples below:





Case is the form of a word in which it is used in Russian. There are six cases in the Russian language and each of them is characterized by its own formulation of the question to which it answers. Here is a table of cases with prepositions and endings used -



Case is grammatical basis words, shows the syntactic role of the word and links words into sentences. To change by case means to inflect a word.

In order for sentences to be logically connected and nouns to be easily perceived, numeral adjectives must take the necessary form. To do this, you need to be able to decline correctly, and here we turn to CASE for help.